>> i think republicans in congress work better with vice president biden than president obama in these sorts of negotiations. >> america's happy warrior could be ruled out. what's your headline, good sir? >> unfortunately like past headlines, "in a jobs crisis, the republicans are still trying to cut health care and economic aid." i think that will be more and more difficult for them to carry as a message when people back home don't talk about cliffs, they talk about jobs, they talk about unemployment, and they don't want manufactured crises from washington when you could cut these tax hikes on the middle class, first order of business. >> it is fascinating. you eluded to it earlier, number of guests have talked about this as well, how we are very much in the posturing phase period as you indicated. a lot of bluster, a lot of chest thumping. one has to wonder at what point, at what point, perry, all of that ends and the real negotiating gets started. >> it's going to get close -- january 1st is getting closer. we're further from the posturing stage and further to the negotiating phase.